Why don't you (i.e. The Republican Party) offer something and find out? They offered absolutely NOTHING. They did NOTHING to attract the libertarian base. They preferred to act like we didn't exist/matter. Why should a libertarian/Ron Paul supporter ever consider voting for a Republican again?

What am I willing to compromise on? What are YOU willing to give up?

If Mitt Romney had made the auditing of the Federal Reserve even a discussion, and THEN libertarian/Ron Paul supporters turned their nose up, you'd have some cause for complaint. That's not what happened - we were completely shut out of the party and told that the party didn't need us and that if we weren't voting for Mitt, we were voting for Obama and we're not worth having.

I'd love to know what "we" would have compromised on. It would have been nice to have that discussion when it meant something.

So, you can't think of anything? If Mitt Romney had come out in favor of an audit of the Fed would you have voted for him (all else equal)?

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"I'll see you guys in New York." ISIS Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to US military personnel upon his release from US custody at Camp Bucca in Iraq during Obama's first year in office.

The Meltdown Gets Ugly as Conservatives Attempt a Coup to Overthrow Boehner

By: Sarah JonesDecember 6th, 2012

The #FireBoehner hashtag really took off last night on Twitter. No, it wasn’t started by evil liberals – it was the conservatives at American Majority Action (AMA) who started it. The gang smelled blood and the sharks are circling. The Daily Caller was promoting their version of online activism to “dispose” Boehner of his speakership.

They’re mad at a “secret list” they think Boehner used to purge several “real conservatives” from House committees. Republican Reps. David Schweikert, Justin Amash and Tim Huelskamp come up often in these circles, with Freedom Works urging members to call Boehner’s office in order to instruct him to stop kicking real conservatives, such as the above three, from committees.

Who is going to tell these angry conservatives that it is reasonable to assume that Amash and Huelskamp were kicked off at the request or at least mention of Paul Ryan (R-WI), their hero at large? Ryan was after all kept on by the very same Steering Committee as budget chairman, in spite of his inability to do math on the campaign trail.

See, Amash and Huelskamp voted against Paul Ryan’s budget because it did not cut spending enough. Yes, that budget — the one the nuns protested for immorally cutting funding to needy Americans. These two are quite literally destroying the Republican Party’s image (as if that was hard to do at this point). Party leadership must feel they had to be cut off from having the ability to obstruct the GOP from making deals they need to make in order to spare their reputation more damage (read: fiscal cliff deal).

No doubt Boehner agrees that these guys have to go if the Republican Party is going to have a fighting chance of not taking the total blame for yet another fiscal cliff/debt ceiling debacle. Boehner is not stupid. He has been, however, ineffective as a Speaker, but he’s also been placed in a horrible position by the Tea Party and he waited too long to grab the reins. He knows his career is on the line, and that’s why he’s threatening panel assignments and reminding his party that leadership is watching their votes.

In typical Republican fashion, the Party let the losers learn about their ouster the hard way – with the public, on the Internet from the media. Not cool, but this is the Republican Party. Authoritarianism is all fun and games until you’re on the wrong side of it.

So the conservatives’ plan is to get 16 Republicans to refuse to vote for Boehner for Speaker in the new session, so that they can get “real conservative” ideas passed. Now, by real conservative ideas, we are not talking Paul Ryan crazy, but rather worse than Paul Ryan. Believe it.

Erick Erickson’s Red State blogger Ned Ryun wrote, “If conservatives want to keep the House and win the Senate, we need to fire John Boehner as Speaker of the House. We only need 16 House votes to do it.” Obviously Ryun doesn’t read polls any better now than conservatives did before the election results destroyed their carefully constructed denial. They are not going to win the Senate back with this approach. The public distrusts extremism in all forms and while the localized House can get away with it, it is much harder to win a Senate seat as an extremist.

No one is going to accuse these folks of being politically savvy. Read the AMA’s statement from the the Daily Caller:

“Speaker Boehner has been an abysmal failure as speaker, and his latest purge is the nail in the coffin for conservatives,” said Ned Ryun, president and CEO of AMA. “Boehner has never won a negation [sic] battle with the White House or Senate — and he’s been nothing short of an embarrassing spokesman for the conservative movement. It’s time for him to go.”

But some realize that these conservatives can’t see in front of them. A Ron Paul Libertarian tweeted:

Even if they could get 16 Republicans to refuse to vote for Boehner, they would have to get the votes (218) for “real conservative”, as defined by them, and that is not going to happen. Remember, boys, Big Brother is “watching your votes.” You play, you pay.

Ron Paul warns Republicans not to further anger their base
By John Hudson Wednesday, December 5, 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ron Paul has a message for his fellow House Republicans trying to tame the Tea Party: Don’t. You’ll only make them angrier.

Paul is sounding the warning after GOP leaders booted four Tea Party supporters off the Budget and Financial Services committees in hopes of advancing a deal with Democrats that would keep the country from going off the fiscal cliff.

And Paul, retiring after 15 years in Congress, knows of what he speaks because he is a founder of the Tea Party movement.

The Texas representative told the Daily that the rare move by the Republican Steering Committee will harden the conservatives — three just wrapping up their first term — not soften them.

“They’re going to punish freshmen legislators? If you’re looking for dissension, then you’re going to get it,” Paul told The Daily. “These congressmen will never cave. They’re going to get the support of the people … They will become heroes.”

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner insists the Steering Committee based its decision on several factors but detailed none of them to The Daily.

However, a GOP leadership aide told NBC News that the four members — Michigan’s Justin Amash, Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, Walter Jones of North Carolina and Arizona’s David Schweikert — were “clearly not team players.”

Last year, the foursome opposed the Budget Control Act, which raised the ceiling on the national debt. Before the measure, a stalemate between House Republicans and the White House threatened to send the country into default.

“It just emboldens us,” Amash said. “I talked to a number of conservatives in the conference who are appalled at what happened. The leadership team have a growing rebellion on their hands.”

Tea Party umbrella group FreedomWorks, which just lost leader Dick Armey after a nasty fight about its future, is outraged by the calculated reassignments.

“This is a clear attempt on the part of Republican leadership to punish those in Washington who vote the way they promised their constituents they would — on principle — instead of mindlessly rubber-stamping trillion-dollar deficits and the bankrupting of America,” president Matt Kibbe said.

Paul doesn’t have strong enough words for the crackdown, calling the move unconscionable.

“It was amazing,” he said. “You get punched for actually having sincere beliefs.”

They're doubling down on Republican Civil War in Alaska - During a lame duck session, the outgoing leadership basically voted to reverse the recent party elections. And on his way out the door, the outgoing chairman cleaned out the party treasury and put it into an account that the incoming leadership can't reach. Party unity? They're burning the place to the ground.

They're doubling down on Republican Civil War in Alaska - During a lame duck session, the outgoing leadership basically voted to reverse the recent party elections. And on his way out the door, the outgoing chairman cleaned out the party treasury and put it into an account that the incoming leadership can't reach. Party unity? They're burning the place to the ground.

I think they're making a serious mistake that will ultimately backfire. These are the kinds of battles where the "good guys always win." If conservative voters have anything, it's a strong sense of right and wrong, which gets more fierce the more local you get. These kinds of moves make the establishment look like a den of vipers and the challengers looking like St. Patrick ready to clean the mess up. I doubt it will be clean as all that though. I have a feeling the the Republican party in Alaska is about to turn into a mud bath.

I have been trying to find a Tea Party "platform" online recently. I'm really not finding anything solid. I've been trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, but much of what I am finding about them looks bat shit crazy. Would you say that Rove is trying to remove the bat shit crazy from the Republican party here? Because that would be a good thing.

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"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind I'd still be in prison."

I have been trying to find a Tea Party "platform" online recently. I'm really not finding anything solid. I've been trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, but much of what I am finding about them looks bat shit crazy. Would you say that Rove is trying to remove the bat shit crazy from the Republican party here? Because that would be a good thing.

If they would have done this before the last election they would have control of the senate. When I suggested this I was told I was FOS. I guess Rove and others agree with my conclusion.